Improvement in railroad-car baskets



1.' F. HunsuN.'

Railroad Car Baskets,.-

Patente.dlul'y1,1873.

AM. PHomilrHnG/MPHIC C0. N Y( oseamlf` Francesi) UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN F. HUDSON, OF EAST CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-CAR BASKETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 140,504, dated J uy 1, 1873 application filed March 15, 1873.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN F. HUDSON, or East Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts,have invented an Improvement in Railway-Gar Baskets; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken'in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention suiicient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In the manufacture of one class of car-baskets to be used in railway cars the outer connecting-rods are covered with tubes fashioned into square or polygonal shape in cross-section, the flat surfaces being preferably ornamented by surface configurations, the ends of the wires constituting the web passing through these tubes, and being then twisted together, or being fastened to the tubes by hooks passing through suitable holes. The holes made for reception of the wires or hooks injure the shape and appearance of the tube, and such holes are not easily formed.

In my invention I make each rod-encompassing tube from a larger tube partially reduced or compressed longitudinally, such compressed part forming the flat n or web, to which the bottom portion of the basket is to be attached.

The drawing represents a construction embodying my invention.

'Figure l shows the basket in cross-section. Fig. 2 is a front view of one of the tubes.

a denotes one of the two heads or ends of the basket, connected by the rods c d e f g,

the outer rods c g extending through the tubes h i. Each tube h t' is shown as made square in cross-section, but from the inner corner or angle of each a flat piece or fin, 7c, extends, and through such lin holes l are bored to receive the ends or loops of the wires m that form the web or filling, extending around or connecting the rods, as seen in the drawing. This fin is made in forming the polygonal tube from a tube of sufficient diameter to permit the compressing of part of it into dat shape for the iin, as seen more particularly in Fig. 3, the polygonal shape and the 1in being both made by rolling` or by compression in suitable dies.

The flat faces of the tube being ornamentally contigurated it will be readily seen that such faces by my construction are left perfect, being free not only from holes for receiving the wires, but from any projection or lapping of the wires over their ornamented faces.

I am aware that cross-supports have been made from a flat sheet of metal bent into a partial tube with two ribs having an inclosed space between them. This I do not claim.

I claim- A cross-support for the wires or bottom of a car-basket constructed from a metallic tube, a portion of which is compressed longitudinally to form a fin to sustain the basket-bottom, substantially as shown and described.

J. F. HUDSON.

Witnesses:

FRANoIs GoULD, M. W. FROTHINGHAM. 

